Mathieu Valbuena regrets the absence of Karim Benzema at the start of the blackmail trial

Football player Mathieu Valbuena, victim of a blackmail in 2015 that is being tried in the Court of Versailles and in which Karim Benzema is accused of complicity, He regretted the absence of the Real Madrid footballer, the only one of the five defendants who did not appear at the oral hearing.

“We have waited for this trial for six years, we are all here, Karim is missing, it’s a shame,” the now Greek Olympiakos player told reporters after the first break of the day.

His lawyer, Didier Domat, deplored the absence both before the media and in court, where he was more explicit: Benzema “puts his sports career before his obligations to justice. We have been waiting five years for a confrontation of opinions with Valbuena, we believe that Benzema is afraid of it ”.

The Real Madrid player’s lawyers justified their absence in the trial, scheduled until next Friday, due to the forward’s sports obligations, who last night played a Champions League match against Shakhtar Donetsk in Kiev and on Sunday will face the Spanish league classic against FC Barcelona.

The Prosecutor’s Office accepted that discharge and the president of the court, Christophe Morgan, accepted it as good.

In the first part of the oral hearing, the name of the Real Madrid attacker appeared little, because the interrogations focused on the events prior to his intervention in the case.

The first to speak was Valbuena, who assured that the case made him feel afraid, although at no time did he think about paying, despite the pressure he suffered from the blackmailers.

“I was afraid for my sports career, if the video came out my presence in the national team was over, as it happened later,” said Valbuena, who since the case broke out in November 2015 has not been called up by the coach, Didier Deschamps, who did recover Benzema before the last European Championship.

The player felt from the first moment that there was blackmail and that they wanted to get money from him, so he went to the police.

Reward or Blackmail

Axel Angot also appeared, accused of having recovered from an old Valbuena phone a video of a sexual nature in which he appeared and that is at the origin of the blackmail attempt.

His version was that he never wanted to blackmail, but did put the player on notice to come to him and, in return, give him a reward.

When the prosecutor asked him if this was not a form of blackmail, this computer expert who in the past had worked for other footballers admitted: “indirectly yes”.

Younes Houass, in charge of contacting Valbuena, also testified., and who the president of the court, the prosecutor and the private prosecution put on the ropes.

Houass had a lot of trouble explaining his version, according to which he only acted to help Valbuena and prevent the video from reaching the press.

Several times condemned for other facts, Houass assured that at no time did he claim money, a version that contrasts with some of the telephone conversations intercepted by the police after Valbuena denounced the blackmail attempt.

This confidant of several footballers said he had been manipulated by Angot and another of the defendants, Mustapha Zaoaoui, and claimed that his only intention, as a football fan, was to help a French international player.

At best, he admitted, he expected to be paid by the intermediary designated by Valbuena for the case, who was actually an undercover cop under the pseudonym Luka.

But he had trouble explaining why, in goodwill, he contacted Valbuena on a masked phone, why he lied to her when he said he had seen the video, and why he was never shown his true identity. (D)